The online activist group Electronic Privacy Information Center
has obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act
which
detail a "collaboration between the Defense Department,
the Department of Homeland Security, and private companies to
allow government monitoring of private Internet networks."

Basically, the Obama administration publicly threatens to
veto CISPA — citing privacy concerns — while privately granting
immunity to companies like AT&T as they collaborate with
government agencies to evade wiretapping laws.

The administration has issued an unknown amount of "2511"
Wiretap Act immunity letters to internet providers, essentially
making existing law null and void.

Natashe Lennard of Salon writes, "As such, in light of
EPIC’s findings, CISPA, like
the NDAA,
can be seen to retroactively inscribe into law activity
the government has already been carrying out in
secret."

Paul Rosenzweig, a former Homeland Security official and
founder of Red Branch
Consulting, compared the NSA and DOD asking the Justice
Department for 2511 letters to that of the CIA asking the Justice
Department for the so-called torture
memos a decade ago. (They were written by Justice
Department official John Yoo, who reached the controversial
conclusion that waterboarding was not torture.)